I've got an EX490 that I've been quite happy with for several years, but I just go a new desktop with Win 8.1 and have learned that it is not compatible with WHS V1.

I can get a copy of WHS 2011, but am curious if people here think this is a good route to go. From what I've read it seems like a fairly basic install, but I will have to add something else to be able to span multiple drives.

Thanks!

I should add that my primary usage is as a media server, general shared storage and backups (the server itself is also backed up to a cloud service).

WHS2011 does not come with Drive Extender or DE like WHSv1 which came with your EX490 so you will have to figure out how you want to manage your data be it with a 3rd party DE Solution like Drive Bender or Stablebit Drive pool, Setup RAID or use the drives as you would in a PC and then configure the Backup System to backup each drive.

One thing I would encourage you to do if you go that route is to configure an OS Backup Drive to backup the OS twice a day. This will make server recoveries much easier as its very similar to a client recovery or I should say the results are similar in that you chose which backup you want to restore from and then when its down your server would be in the same condition it was in at that point in time meaning no need to reconfigure anything like in WHSv1.

I would also urge you to get a DEBUG Board to make installing and recovering the server a very simple process. Yes it can be done blind but the recovery part well that one I have no clue how to do blind. You may also want a more robust server then the EX490 something more up to date with easily obtainable off the shelf parts something that's not awfully easy with the EX490 but in the end the choice is yours to make but do give it some thought.

The LED's will not work properly but there is software available you can install after installing an INTEL Driver to get the lights working otherwise the drive lights will not be on and the health light will just blink blue forever.

Now I have WHS2011 running in an EX480 with an E5200 and its ok. On my EX490 I have an E5800 in it but left it running WHSv1 and the E5800 runs much cooler then the E5200 processor. I have also set the fans to run 100% all the time because like to keep my components cool.

Anyway there are plenty of WHS2011 posts in the forums and the experiences people have running it on the MSS so I would urge you to read through everything you can find so that you can decide if installing WHS2011 on your EX490 is the right thing for you.

As for a MediaServer I use the EX480 to stream content from my primary server online and it handles the task remarkably well using Remote Potato which is a tougher task then streaming to your devices within the home so you EX490 with the right processor running WHS2011 should work out well. On last thing is to look at how much storage you will need in your server if your storing media because movies take up a lot of space so its easy to chew through drives depending on which video format you prefer. Now the drives are getting larger so you need fewer of them but still if you go crazy with it the storage capacity requirements will grow and grow faster then you might believe. I remember when 4 drives seemed like it would last quite awhile but then before I knew it I was up to 24 drives then I started using 4TB Drives and was able to pull out some older drives but now I have like 41+ TB in my server and today I am looking at adding a couple 6TB Drives.

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Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

While I am definitely tech savvy, I've always liked the easy of doing everything on the EX490. Since I'd really prefer more of a plug & play solution, a part of me is starting to wonder if I shouldn't just put the money towards a multi-bay NAS rather than spending it on a SW upgrade.